


Overexposed

by w3djyt



Category: Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Character(s), Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 03:46:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4375997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w3djyt/pseuds/w3djyt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hal is more or less used to random factions thinking he and Sinestro are together in some form. At best, it's an amusing misconception to have to constantly clear up, but in the aftermath of the First Lantern it's a harsh reminder of everything he fought for and lost.</p><p>[ Married but not married trope partially subverted for angst. ]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overexposed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AuroraExecution](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraExecution/gifts).



> [ Thanks to AuroraExecution for babbling with me into all hours of the morning and accidentally prompting me with this one. I need to write more for Hal. ]

 

H’llishek looked vaguely like a ball of mud from orbit.

The inhabitants largely consisted of its native, bug like humanoids that had long ago carved out a portion of intergalactic trade based entirely on agriculture. Nothing much happened on H’llishek and hadn’t for quite some time. In fact, its entire sector was largely quiet and peaceful and didn’t often request nor demand much of a presence from the Green Lantern Corps.

A fortunate thing, really, considering how short handed and generally frazzled the entire corps was by the time Hal got around to checking up on things. After all, the Corps’ track record with unguarded, underreported sectors wasn’t exactly comforting.

Still, Hal didn’t _have_ to be there. He could have shoved off to Earth the moment things settled and no one would have thought twice about it. Carol had suggested it more than once. One of those times it might have been more than a suggestion. He still turned it down. He wasn’t ready for Earth again. And there were patrols to cover and allies to reassure and protectorates to assuage and sometimes just remembering how much now depended largely on him was enough to make him long for days spent getting dragged across the universe when it was all mind boggling and new. Now, half his time was spent trying to figure out where he was going and what he was supposed to be doing.

H’llishek was easy. He had a reason to be there, but stopping over to meet and greet the local government and assure them they would have a new Lantern in no time, was a break. Not one he necessarily _wanted_ , but one obviously shoved into the schedule by well meaning friends trying to encourage him to slow down. He was more than prepared to smile, make promises, and take off without waiting it out. It wasn’t like he didn’t already have something of a reputation for that particular brand of intergalactic politick.

So while H’llishek was actually pretty nice once you entered the atmosphere – all the mud was, apparently, something like rice fields and greenery and small rivers abounded – it clearly didn’t need him to stick around. He’d more or less said as much. Talked about other planets in the sector he needed to visit, other sectors they were focusing on first, and the delays that would come with that. It was all very simple and repetitive and really didn’t need him to physically _be there_ to deliver… but the longer he spoke with the small delegation the more difficult it became to extricate himself.

Sentient species did not always follow the same body language, but Hal considered himself pretty decent at determining nonverbals by now, and while they were still talking about great battles only days past, somehow it felt like an entirely separate conversation was occurring in his midst. They drifted closer, large eyes never leaving him even as they were clearly gesturing with spindle-like fingers between each other. An hour in, and the primary delegate – a charming, well spoken, vaguely feminine being who had introduced themselves as Icklack – laid a hand over his wrist. It was a gentle touch, directly over the vein, and something about it made him stop mid sentence before his ring could even fill him in on all the nuances of the gesture.

By the time he glanced around for reactions to judge his own against, they were already alone. Hal blinked. When had that happened?

“Please accept our condolences, Lantern Jordan,” Icklack softly clicked, long fingers brushing over his pulse in an oddly soothing manner.

“… Condolences?” he echoed, mask widening with the raise of his eyebrows. His chest felt inexplicably tighter.

Icklack inclined their head slightly. “We were unaware you had lost your Life’s Song. Please do not think so poorly of us as to believe we would force you to relive such a thing for the sake of information alone.”

 _Oh_.

Hal barked a laugh before he could really stop the reaction, free hand instinctively raising to cover his eyes for a moment. _This_ again. Even now? His breath hitched between chuckles, the tightening in his chest worsening because wasn’t this just hilarious? “I’m not… Look, Icklack, I’m not sure what you’ve heard,” he tried again, dragging his hand down over his mouth to catch his words before he could throw them about haphazardly again. “But I’m not – _we’re_ not… like… that.”

 _Life’s Song_.

The ring usually only reverted to direct translations like that when there were no other applicable terms or turns of phrase. How many idiosyncrasies must he have been missing from that alone? It was _already_ sort of hopelessly romantic in a way that made him _ache_ just thinking about it.

Icklack was just looking at him with what he vaguely considered a thoughtful expression. It was difficult to really know; since everyone he’d met on this planet seemed to default to peaceful neutral. “… I hear your heart sing when you speak of him.”

“Then you weren’t listening.” Niceties be damned. Hal ripped his hand away, rubbing at his wrist self consciously. He couldn’t do this now. Not… not now. “Look, whatever you think you heard or felt or whatever, it doesn’t matter.” He turned away, drawing in a lungful of air in a bracing breath against the vice that would not leave his chest. “We don’t… it’s not really like that – and even if it _was_ , it wouldn’t be anymore, okay? We… we won, and he…”

_I will **leave** you **forever.**_

The careful grip at his wrist drew him crashing back from frozen memory. Icklack regarded him steadily with the strange, opalescent eyes of their race, holding his gaze and his mind to the moment as if they knew he needed to be grounded to be present. Maybe they did. His pulse fluttered beneath the soft touch and there was a slight tremor in his limbs that hadn’t been there before. When had that happened?

“When our song is lost, as are we.” The words were soft and with more understanding than Hal was entirely prepared to hear. He unconsciously turned towards it. “It matters not the process that led us there.”

“I…”

“It is all right, Lantern Jordan.”

“No it’s not!” Hal shook from the force of his unintended declaration, but couldn’t bring himself to pull away again. Anger surged up in a sudden spiral of aggression that pushed him forward instead, well into the delegate’s personal space. “How _can_ it be? After everything that’s happened – everything _he dragged me through_. I was _happy_ again. I was going to spend my life on Earth. I was going to get my happily ever after – do you know how _impossible_ that is for someone like me? For a Green Lantern? For anyone who’s lived a life like mine?

“But he couldn’t let me _have it_. He couldn’t and the damn _Universe_ couldn’t and I… I couldn’t _let it go_. Like a damned moron, I thought maybe there was more to resolve. Maybe it could be _different_ , maybe something had _changed_. I _believed_ in him again, and I … I was so _relieved_ when… when he… what kind of person is _relieved_ by that? But he wouldn’t… He never _backs down_. But he still made me think… made me hope…”

It was rambling and incoherent and broken, but he couldn’t push any more of it out. Somehow, Icklack was still there, unflinching from the pain and anger pouring off the powerful lantern before them. Instead, they raised a hand to brush over the edge of Hal’s mask – barely a touch yet Hal instinctively banished it with hardly a thought. Icklack’s expression shifted to a small, sad smile, but it seemed blurry and indistinct to Jordan.

“It is okay to grieve,” they said, and somehow that was enough.

Hal curled forward, closed his eyes, and laid his head on the offered shoulder. What part of the spectrum claimed the ache in his chest and the heat in his eyes? He knew the answer, but sometimes saving the universe was easier than admitting it to himself.


End file.
